Pianezze

Pianezze appears for the first time in 1025, under the name Planicia: the little plain surrounded by hills on which the village stands. In 1262 we find it again, as Pianezza, in the register of goods that the Comune of Vicenza took over after the death of Ezzelino III da Romano, and it is listed as one of the five colmelli of Marostica — that is, one of the boroughs that made up that town, together with Marostica itself, Molvena, Roveredo and Marsan. To Marostica and its civil vicariate Pianezze stayed tied under the Visconti and under Venice, until the fall of the Serenissima, and became an autonomous comune only with the French. There is, though, a curiosity: the medieval documents name its churches more than once — San Lorenzo, San Nicolò, San Giacomo — but never mention castles or fortifications, and yet the arms granted in 1950 show three crenellated towers on a rock.

The other half of those arms, however, is the true one: a cherry tree laden with fruit. Here they grow the «Sandra» cherry, a local variety that ripens early, and its fair is held on the third weekend of May, a couple of weeks ahead of the traditional cherry fairs of Marostica and of Mason Vicentino; the cherry of Marostica obtained the protected geographical indication mark at the beginning of the two thousands. On the hills, together with the cherry trees, there are olives and vines, and through the woods run the cherry paths. The church of Saint Lawrence martyr was enlarged between 1752 and 1754; and during a recent restoration of the church of Saints Philip and James, which is of Lombard or Frankish origin, protohistoric finds came to light: there were people here long before there was a name.